News

CRFU selectors, coaches Graham Dawe and Marek Churcher as well as team manager Chris Fuca have met and have a squad of players to attend the team building event hosted by Marc Bishop at sponsors St Austell Tribute Brewery on Friday 22nd February commencing at 7 pm.

Chris Fuca and Julian Wilce will be contacting players and their club coaches inviting them to the event scheduled for Friday 22nd February so that everyone knows the season plan, dates and details. This starts the process of getting the team ready for the Tamar Cup in April to be played in Plymouth at Brickfields and then the Bill Beaumont County Championship games scheduled for May when Cornwall are away to Kent on 4th May at Medway, home at Redruth against Herts on 11th May and then away to Devon at Brixham on the 18th of May.

Chair of selectors, Terry Carter, is pleased with the work of the selectors who have visited all our clubs and identified players who have the calibre to play for the County. He added,‘now it’s down to the players to deliver the results we expect, play with commitment and passion for the black and gold and make Cornwall supporters proud of their team’.

Chris Lea

Chair Representative Rugby Committee

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Congratulations to Camelford RFC who will be celebrating their 10th Anniversary this season. A real success story thanks to the hard work of a group of dedicated volunteers who have built a club which embraces the true values of our game.

The first of many celebrations will be on Saturday 8th September when they entertain St Just in a cup game when a new shirt will be unveiled.

On Sunday 28th April their season will culminate in a President’s Day at Lane End.

For further details please contact Nic Osborne at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Good luck to “The Ford” for their anniversary season and many more to follow!

In the first two rounds teams will receive Four (4) points for a win, Two (2) points for draw and One (1) point for playing the match. If there are two or more clubs on the same points at the end of the second round, the club with the greater points difference will go through to the Semi Final which will be played on Saturday 15th September.

The Duchy Cup Final will be played on 19th April 2019 (Good Friday).

The remaining six teams will enter the Duchy Plate with two teams receiving a bye for round one. The draw will be made on the weekend of 22nd September with games being played on Saturday 29th September.

The Plate Semi Final will be played on Saturday 15th December.

The Duchy Plate Final will be played on 19th April 2019 (Good Friday).

Please note that Bodmin RFC has worked hard to put parking arrangements in place to avoid a repeat of the problems some experienced last year. There will be designated coach parking for the teams, supporters should drive through the normal entrance, up the drive to the clubhouse where they will be guided to their parking areas.

A combination of injuries and some disappointing last-minute withdrawals left the selectors with the extremely difficult task of putting a squad together to make the journey to Bishop’s Stortford.

The players that travelled did so knowing that they faced an uphill task but keen and proud to pull on the famous black & gold jersey. They played with passion and commitment and despite being outmuscled up front by a much bigger Hertfordshire pack they never let their heads drop and kept playing for the full eighty minutes.

Trelawny’s Army led the travelling supporters in cheering and singing the players from the field in recognition of the fact that they had given everything for the cause. Despite the final score the whole squad have every reason to be proud of themselves.

In the midst of celebrating rounding off their season with a big win, the Hertfordshire players and coaching team were taken by surprise by the unexpected news that Surrey had beaten Gloucestershire, putting Hertfordshire into the final against cup holders Lancashire.

The relegation slot from Division One is decided on a two-year cycle so winning the Division last season means Cornwall will retain their status in the top tier – Surrey will be relegated having been deducted two points for playing an illegible player and will be replaced by Hampshire.

Division One South for 2019 and 2020 will therefore consist of:

Cornwall, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Hertfordshire and Kent.

Cornwall will be drawn to play against three of the other counties (probably two away games) with the fixtures reversed in 2020. THIS IS SUBJECT TO THE USUAL CAVEAT – UNLESS THE RFU CHANGE THE RULES/FORMAT AGAIN.

The retirement from county rugby of several senior Cornish players meant this was always going to be a transition year. Lessons will have been learnt and Cornwall will face next season all the stronger for it.

Match report from Bill Hooper:

HERTFORDSHIRE 50–0 CORNWALL

By Bill Hooper

Cornwall selectors rang the changes ahead of the county side’s final fixture for this season with a view to looking at players ahead of next season’s campaign; however they were also hit by some late withdrawals which meant Cornwall fielding a side with not one Redruth player in the match day squad!

Sadly, for Cornwall the gulf in the playing standard showed with Cornwall suffering their biggest defeat for many years, a result that will shock many but in reality others feared.

Huge credit to those players who came in at the last minute to wear the shirt, indeed to the whole side for never giving up playing until the final whistle.

Cornwall ended the campaign bottom of their group but as relegation is considered over two seasons, the 15 points they amassed in 2017 saved their skins, however in 2019 they will start another 2 year cycle of results. Surrey appear to be the unlucky side to drop having been deducted points for fielding an ineligible player against Cornwall. They will be replaced in the top tier by Hampshire.

Cornwall’s skipper Jake Murphy was philosophical in defeat. “Credit to our lads for turning out today, it’s not been easy putting a side together this week. To a man they gave their all but sadly the gulf was evident today when you are up against National League 1 & 2 players. I shall think over my own situation over the summer as to whether I should carry on next season, maybe it’s time for the youngsters to step up now and take Cornwall on a new adventure.”

As in their previous two games Cornwall conceded an early try from a catch-and-drive when Herts hooker Steff Jones snuck over from the drive, fly-half Sean Taylor kicked the conversion and the home side were up and running.

Cornwall then lost lock Jack Heazelton to injury giving Penryn’s Adam Hughes an early chance to impress.

Cornwall enjoyed good possession for large parts of the first half but sadly committed too many errors. Skipper Jake Murphy and fellow centre Jon Dawe caught the eye in mid-field as did forwards Jon Drew and George Jones with their drives.

Hertfordshire made the most of their field position when it came scoring two tries in the final ten minutes of the first half through lock Harry Green and right on the half-time whistle through No.8 Chris West, Taylor converted the former for a 19-0 half-time advantage to Hertfordshire.

In the second half Cornwall again had good periods but sadly they couldn’t capitalise as the big Hertfordshire pack took charge allied to the greater fitness of National League players.

Hertfordshire’s bonus point try came from a forward drive replacement hooker Ollie Walker getting the try with the excellent Taylor again adding the extras.

Tries came at regular intervals as the final quarter wore on through scrum-half Ben Creasey centre James Rea, replacement wing Luke Barber, flanker Nick Radley bringing up the eight tries. Taylor added a further couple of conversions to complete the scoring in an emphatic win, which coupled with Surrey’s win over Gloucestershire sees the men in green at Twickenham next Sunday to face Lancashire in the final.

Cornwall will be bitterly disappointed not to have got a score, whilst the coaches and selectors will have much to ponder on how to turn Cornwall’s fortunes around next season.

With injuries and the unavailability of players the selectors have been forced to make several changes to the squad to travel to Bishop’s Stortford for the third round of the Bill Beaumont County Championship (Division One South) on Saturday 19th May.

The boys will be playing for pride as the hopes of a sixth consecutive Twickenham appearance were thwarted by the single point defeat by Devon last week and Tier One participation for the next two years is already guaranteed.

The pressure will be on Hertfordshire who still have the chance of getting to Twickenham but who will have to overcome twenty-two players in black & gold who will be keen to show that they should not be taken lightly.

Kick Off is at 3.00 p.m. and the whole game can be watched live here (thanks to Dave Burrows):